A/N: Obviously I did not invent this magical world of awesomeness. All credit goes to Rowling!

Hey guys,

Phew. My first two weeks of exams are almost behind me and it's been one hell of a ride. They have been harder than I imagined them to be and let's just say that I am royally screwed.

Anyway here's the last chapter of this fanfiction. I know that things are going to seem like they wrap up a little bit too soon and too fast, but wait till you read the epilogue! I am not ready to let James and Rosemary go yet!

I hope you'll enjoy the last chapter!

Love,

Kelly

24: The moment I started living in the moment

"Are you quite sure you're alright?" Cassandra asked me again as I walked into the Great Hall with my nose high in the air.

I probably looked ridiculous, but screw that. If I kept on thinking about what everyone else said or thought about me, I'd go insane and I was plenty crazy already.

"Cassie, dear, I love how much you worry about me," I really didn't, "but if you don't stop right now I will strangle you." I gave her one of my sweetest smiles and a grin broke through on her face.

It lit up her whole face and made her transform from stunning to incredibly beautiful. "That's my girl," she said, patting my arm comfortingly.

"Cassandra," I growled.

"I'm just saying, James Bloody Potter doesn't deserve you anyway." She announced it so loudly that several heads turned and I forced myself to giggle.

Nothing to see here, lads and lasses. Carry on.

When my smile didn't help, I gave them a fierce glare until they slowly turned away to gossip. I turned my glare to Cassandra.

"I never said 'Subtlety' was my middle name, now did I?"

"No, it's 'Blabber Mouth'," I agreed.

She gave me a slight shove and I laughed. "Come on and do try to avoid the previous subject from now on."

"Nope, sorry, no can do. Request denied," Cassandra said jovially as we sat down at the Hufflepuff table. "What changed your mind anyway? Why did you come back so chipper all of a sudden yesterday?"

"Should I keep on crying over some Gryffindor loser instead?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"If it helps," Cassandra said gently.

"Well, it doesn't," I muttered as I angrily grabbed a piece of toast.

"I know for a fact that you don't think he's a loser anymore." I looked up from my food to stare expressionlessly at her. "I think your twelve year old self has popped up again."

I visibly cringed at the reminder. "We were foolish," I sighed.

"Yes, but we did get to kiss two cute boys."

"Weren't we in second year by then?"

"Details." Cassandra waved me away. "What I'm saying is that maybe the crush never really disappeared? Maybe you were just hurt by his reaction back then?"

Can you bloody well blame me? "The bloody sod put my hair on fire," I reminded her grumbling.

Cass grinned. "I KNEW you were still sore about that."

"Talking about a rejection," I muttered as I viciously cut my toast into tiny bits. I remembered last night's resolution and gave a deep sigh. "Totally over that though."

"Girl, if that statement were true, I'd be a fucking kangeroo."

"Charming."

Cassandra gave me a wink. "You know me, love. I'm always charming the pants off some bloke."

I shook my head at her. "You're unbelievable."

"What's unbelievable is that Potter kid staring at you," she frowned.

I stiffened and slowly exhaled. James was staring at me? Butterflies went on a rampage in my stomach as my broken heart throbbed painfully in my chest.

He had no business looking at me. If he was too chicken to talk to me face to face or if he believed the crap they were writing about me, he had absolutely lost the right to look at me.

"We think that he's being rather stupid," a voice piped up at my left. I turned and stared. "I'm sorry if we interrupt. May we join you?"

I gestured to the empty seats beside us. Since the news of the Kiss Incident, as Cassandra had dubbed it, had spread like a wildfire throughout the school, we had been shunned like former Death Eaters. As if our embarrassment could rub off on them. Foolish, if you asked me, but it really did sent the message.

"What brings you to our popular side of the table?" Cassandra asked sarcastically, making me wince a little. I was so sorry that I dragged her into all of this. She didn't deserve to be shunned alongside me.

Elena gave me a pitying look. "I'm sorry, they're being so stupid about this," she said softly as she sat down on my left. Irena took the seat on my right.

"I just wanted you to know that I'm not mad at you," Irena said quickly. "About the kiss, I mean."

I blinked. I had hardly given Irena's feelings a thought, but I suppose it must have hurt quite a bit when she came across it.

Elena gave her a frown and seemed like she wanted to say something, but held her tongue.

"That is very... kind of you."

Irena patted my hand comfortingly. "So are you guys truly through?"

I blinked. What? "Why?"

I saw Cassandra study Irena carefully, but it was Elena who held my attention. When she saw me watching her, she gave me a faint smile.

"Because I care, of course. Maybe he has finally had his Rosemary-fix?" she offered.

His Rosemary-fix? Was that a thing? "I don't understand, Irena."

Her face contorted a little and I wondered if I was about to get bitch slapped. Her eyes narrowed for a second, before a brilliant smile graced her face again. I almost thought I had imagined the whole thing... Almost. "If you are asking me if you can go after James again, then you are going to have to take that up with him."

Irena gave me a predatory smile. "Oh, I will. After all he always comes back to me, doesn't he?"

I gave Cassandra a disbelieving look. She shrugged and I could almost hear her sing "all is fair in love and war" in my head. Scratch that. She actually breathed the words under her breath.

You could always count on Cassie, I thought with a grin. I turned back to Irena and gave her my coolest look. "Then go get him, tiger." It pained me to say those words, but I really didn't need any more gossip going around that I didn't want James dating other people.

I mean, of course I didn't want him to, but I wasn't his keeper right? And he had made it adamantly clear that he didn't want anything to do with me, so who was I to stop him?

She gave me a bright smile that I had once thought adorable and incredibly beautiful. Not today. I couldn't keep quiet though.

I grabbed her arm when she made a move to leave. "So tell me, Irena, do you often pretend to be his girlfriend's friend?"

I saw Elena swallow from the corner of my eye.

Irena gave me a sympathetic look. "I am not pretending to be your anything, dear. I really do like you, but I like him more."

"Just scoot, Irena," Cassandra said, rolling her eyes as she started eating again.

As Irena walked away after giving us a knowing smile, Elena lingered a little. "She really isn't a bad person," she said after a few heartbeats. "It's just that James drives her a little mad..."

"He tends to do that to people," I muttered.

"Take our Rose for instance," Cassandra said with her mouth full of bread as the morning owls arrived, "she goes absolutely gaga over his shoulders."

I kicked her underneath the table as a blush took over my face. "I do not," I muttered. I was never going to use that girl as my confidante again.

Elena giggled. "I just wanted to... apologize," she sighed.

I coughed and tried to regain my composure. "You don't have to apologize for her, Elena. Irena is the only one who can do that."

She sighed and hopped awkwardly from her one leg to the other. "I know, it's just that she is my best friend and she's a good person. She's just not showing it right now and like I said, she's always been a bit crazed when it comes to James Potter. I know I'm crossing the boundary here, but I just don't want you to think that she's this inhuman creature. She's madly in love with the guy and he treated her most of the times like shit, because he was madly in love with you. So... Please, keep that in mind the next time you see her," she mumbled softly, before she followed her friend.

I watched in silence as letter after letter fell beside my plate. I recognized some logos from newspapers and only breathed in relief when the owls departed again. No Howlers today. Thank Merlin.

I looked up to Cassandra and she shook her head at me.

"No, no way. Get that look off your face," she told me sternly, waving her toast around in exasperation.

"What look? I don't have a look."

"You look as if you feel sorry for the puppy whose toy you just stole."

I rolled my eyes at that.

"I am serious, Rosemary Woodstock. Don't you dare feel sorry for that wench."

"Don't call her names, Cassandra."

"I'll call her whatever I bloody well like," she said stubbornly.

I rolled my eyes again.

"Keep doing that," Cassandra muttered, "you might find a brain back there."

I stuck out my tongue. "All I'm saying is that it must have hurt when I came into the picture."

"Yes, it also hurts to get hate mail every day, but that didn't stop her skinny ass from coming over here and giving you an earful," Cassie said angrily. "Maybe I should kick her ass."

"Please don't," I sighed heavily. "She doesn't deserve your ass kicking."

Cassandra shrugged at that, silently agreeing. She was a strange one, but I loved her. I knew of no one who would come to my defense that easily and that fiercely.

"I'm not going to befriend the girl," I said slowly, "but I do feel sorry for her."

"If she knew he fancied you, she shouldn't have dated him in the first place. That's asking for a broken heart," Cassandra said slowly. "And I don't pity brainless fangirls."

Neither did I to be honest. Because what Cassandra said was in fact true, it was dumb of Irena to pursue a relationship with James if she knew he had always been mine.

Mine.

He wasn't. I sighed and stared at the letters as I put them on fire without a care. When I looked up again I caught his stare, but he quickly looked away again.

For a Gryffindor, James Sirius Potter was a bloody coward. Today was the big Quidditch match he had me training for when we were stuck together, but that wasn't what made me see red.

I was furious. Beyond it even, I was bloody livid and ready to skin a Potter.

His father had sent me a copy of the Daily Prophet, which I had first thought strange. February was well underway and I hadn't heard a thing from the Potters since the Kiss Incident. (It had made me a little anxious, since all of my stuff was still in their mansion, but I figured to deal with that when the time came. And when I couldn't run and hide from the issue anymore.)

It was safe to say that I had ignored everything to do with news, gossip and/or actuality. I wasn't subscribed to the Daily Prophet or Witch Weekly anymore, so I had no idea what had happened till it was already too late.

James's statement in the paper was certainly something that had my blood boiling. How could he say such sweet things about me, but refuse to talk to me? Why had he been avoiding me for over a month? Why did he treat me like a social pariah if he "cared for me deeply" and "admired me greatly"? Did he want to be smacked to Beauxbatons and back, because I could so do that, you know.

James had given a statement, with Fred and Ozzie to back him up, that I was to be left alone and that I was one of the kindest, bravest people he knew. I doubted I was the kindest person he knew, because let's face it... I have a pretty annoying personality, so I think he said that for the public's benefit. But then he had told them about how he had been watching me for years and only picked on me, because of some weird Potter thing.

I didn't really understand it either, but I was done being talked or written about in bloody magazines or newspapers.

'Rosemary has never treated me as anything else, but a fellow student. Therefore I ask you to treat her with the same respect, she showed me. Don't hate someone you don't know anything about or treat her with hate and jealousy because she's the significant other in my life.'

Significant other?

BLOODY ARGH. Where was the prat?

I looked around until I caught a Gryffindor unaware. "Where's your Quidditch Captain," I snarled angrily.

I saw the girl whiten. I didn't know her name and she looked a couple years younger than me. I probably scared the magic out of her, but couldn't really care. I needed to smack some sense in the prat and nobody was going to keep me from it.

"The Pitch, I imagine," she whispered softly, her eyes wide and her voice shaking as she spoke.

"Thank you," I muttered, before leaving at a run, gripping the paper tight in my hand as I did so.

People were slowly filling the stands, but I didn't pay them any attention. I walked to the boy's changing room in a brisk pace. I threw the door open and entered, interrupting James mid-speech.

Didn't care.

"You," I snarled, waving the paper like a deranged woman. "I need to talk to you."

I saw some Gryffindors grinning. "You're in for it now, mate," I heard Fred say.

A muscle twitched in James's strong jaw, making me want to caress it. No, no, no. I wanted to hit it. HIT IT. "I am busy now, Rosie."

"You don't get to call me, Rosie," I shouted and smacked him on the head with the paper when I finally reached him. "You don't get to call me your bloody 'significant other'. You don't get to stand up for me in some ridiculous paper when you can't do the same IN PUBLIC."

James frowned at me as he took the Prophet away from me. "Hit me again, woman-"

"And you'll what?" I screeched.

He ignored me, perhaps wisely, and said instead: "I thought you weren't subscribed anymore?"

I narrowed my eyes. "You've been keeping tabs on me?"

"Ye-" Oz shook his head. "No," James quickly said.

I turned to Oz, who merely gave me a brilliant smile. "Don't help him."

"Well, I'm afraid I kind of may have made him do the thing." He nodded towards the Prophet.

I narrowed my eyes even further, till they were nothing more but slits. I ignored Oz and turned back to Potter. "I don't want your help," I muttered. "I don't want anything from you anymore."

He opened his mouth to say something, but I interrupted him.

"I waited for months for you to say or do something. To at least talk to me, say you were sorry about the whole thing. But no, the mighty James Potter doesn't apologize for anything," I screamed. "For a Gryffindor you're a bloody coward, Potter. It feels like I've been waiting for you since our kiss in second year," he looked away awkwardly as Oz snickered, "and I am done waiting for you. It's pointless and it only makes me hurt more." I took a step back from him, needing space between us so I could breathe. "I'm done."

I turned around and started walking away slowly as the whole team watched me walk away. I was such a loser at keeping promises I made to myself. Hadn't I told myself a month ago that I could live without a man in my life? That I didn't need James Potter anyway? I fought back tears as I made my way through the room.

"You couldn't have done that after the match?" someone muttered angrily.

I ignored him.

"As if you are so bloody perfect," James shouted after me. "What kind of sane person has her whole life already planned out?! You are so busy living in the future that you forget to live in the now."

I ignored him as well and only paused when I was back on the field. I had thought that giving him a piece of my mind would calm me down, but it hadn't. I felt like I was in mourning, ready to cry and wail.

I started crossing the Pitch to the Hufflepuffs' stand when I heard a shout. I was standing in the middle of the field when a hand grabbed my arm and turned me around.

"I'm sorry," I heard James say, "don't hit me again." The words sounded so familiar that my eyes opened wide when realization struck.

Hadn't I told him something similar in second year?

Without another word, James pulled me against his body and grabbed my face in his hands as if he had never held anything as precious as me before in his life. The butterflies in my stomach leapt right out of my body and flew circles around my head, as James's lips slowly descended to mine.

His lips were soft, but the kiss most certainly wasn't. He put my body on fire and left our New Year's kiss far behind us. I vaguely heard how the public started shouting, clapping and stamping the floor, but my sole focus was James Sirius Potter. I put my arms around his neck and jumped so I could put my legs around his lips.

He caught me and held me with ease, his hard body a sharp contrast to mine. Everywhere our bodies touched, my skin tingled. He was ruining me for other men, I thought dreamily. When he pulled away, way too soon for my taste, he stared me in the eyes as his forehead rested against mine. "Start living in the moment with me, Rosie. Forget about whatever you had planned and make new plans." He kissed my lips fast and fierce. "With me."

"And what's your plan?" I breathed.

"To not plan a single thing," he grinned mischievously. I stayed silent as I studied him carefully. "Rosemary?"

"I," I whispered against his lips as I kissed the right side of his jaw and then the left side, "am still mad at you." And I was. "But I think that you are far too coherent. I must have done something wrong," I mused against his lips, before kissing him again with all the love and anger I had felt for him these past few weeks. We were so going to talk after the game.

"There are a lot of things you do wrong, Woodstock," James grinned against my lips, setting me back down on the ground. "But that's okay," he whispered in my ear, "I'll tutor you until you get it right."

I laughed and he kissed my cheek. He turned and left without another word. All I could think, as I watched him walk away from me and back to his team, was that Gryffindor's Quidditch Captain was mighty fine.